Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to signal-recording/reproducing apparatus for use with a tape cassette.
A signal-recording/reproducing apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,699, which includes a cylinder having mounted thereon heads for respectively recording and reproducing a signal on and from a magnetic tape within the tape cassette, and a pair of tape guides movable between an unloading position remote from the cylinder and a loading position adjacent thereto. The tape is withdrawn out of the tape cassette by the pair of tape guides when they are moved from the unloading position to the loading position. When the pair of tape guides are in the loading position, one of the tape guides is located at an approaching side of the cylinder where the tape approaches the cylinder and the other tape guide is located at an exit side of the cylinder where the tape leaves the cylinder, to guide the tape so as to be helically wound around the cylinder over a predetermined angular extent.
Each of the pair of tape guides includes a non-rotatable guide element. When the pair of tape guides are in the loading position, an angular extent over which the tape is in contact with the guide element of the one tape guide is the same as that over which the tape is in contact with the guide element of the other tape guide.
The considerable angular extent over which the tape is in contact with the guide element of the other tape guide causes a sliding resistance between the tape and the guide element to be increased to increase a tension applied to the tape. The increase in tape tension results in an increase in driving force for driving the tape. This causes the apparatus to be large-sized. In addition, the increase in tape tension causes a thin tape having its thickness of approximately 10 .mu.m, for example, to be damaged. That is, if the tension applied to the thin tape is high, the elongation of tape would be increased and the fluctuation in speed of the tape would occur. Moreover, the repeated use of the tape causes a permanent deformation or plastic strain to occur in the tape so that the edges of the tape will be damaged.